Lady Anne Cavendish-Bentinck

Lady Alexandra Margaret Anne Cavendish-Bentinck (16 September 1916 – 21 December 2008) was a member of the British nobility and one of the richest landowners in the country. She was a notable charity worker, art collector, and horsewoman.

Lady Anne Cavendish-Bentinck came from a long-established aristocratic family. Hans Willem (or William) Bentinck came to Britain from Holland with William of Orange in 1670, and was created Earl of Portland in 1689. His son, Henry, 2nd Earl, was created Duke of Portland in 1716. The Cavendish-Bentincks are related to the Queen, Elizabeth II, through her maternal grandmother Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne. The family accumulated property all over the country, including central London, where streets named after them include Bentinck Street, Portland Place, Harley Street, and Welbeck Street.

Anne's paternal grandfather, William Cavendish-Bentinck, 6th Duke of Portland (1857-1943), broke the entail of the family estates and set up a trust ensuring that she inherited them on the death of her father, William Cavendish-Bentinck, 7th Duke of Portland (1893-1977), a Conservative politician. Her mother was Ivy Gordon-Lennox, daughter of Lord Algernon Charles Gordon-Lennox. Anne had one sibling, a younger sister, Lady Margaret Parente (died 1955). The fact that she had no brothers meant that she became very wealthy, inheriting not only the money but also the family seat of Welbeck Abbey.

As the succession to the Dukedom of Portland was strictly in the male line, Anne's father was succeeded by his third cousin Ferdinand Cavendish-Bentinck. This title and most of those which went with it became extinct in 1990 when the 9th Duke died without a male heir. However, the earldom of Portland was inherited by a male-line descendant of the 1st Duke's younger brother. The 12th and (as of 2016) present Earl of Portland is the actor Tim Bentinck, also known as David Archer to the listeners of the BBC Radio 4 soap opera The Archers.

Anne never married and had no children. Her obituary in the Daily Telegraph repeats the stories that as a débutante, she refused to marry a Belgian nobleman, destined to be Prince Charles of the Belgians. When he came to ask for her hand in marriage she reportedly refused to get out of bed. Instead she wished to marry John Osborne, 11th Duke of Leeds, but her family prevented this.

Lady Anne's sole heir was her nephew, William Parente, who is married with two children. When he served as High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire for 2003–04, the London Gazette gave his address as Welbeck Abbey.

She was involved with many charities throughout her life. These included "causes for the blind", and the Girl Guides, whom she allowed to have a permanent camp at Welbeck, much to the annoyance of the caretakers. Lady Anne was the president of Nottinghamshire St. John Ambulance Brigade and the president of Portland College.

She enjoyed art; she possessed a treasure trove of art including works by Stubbs and van Dyke. She also had a sizable silver collection that she stored in her strongroom. In 1977 she helped establish the Harley Foundation, an art educational charity named after her ancestor, the collector Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford.

She was a horsewoman, riding until she was 90 years old. For about 20 years the Welbeck Estate had its own hunt, the Rufford Harriers, at which she hunted sidesaddle. While she never placed a bet, her horses were successful in their races, leading her to become a leading racehorse owner in Northern England.

She was described by an employee as "famously forthright, funny and practical, a devastatingly gifted mimic, and would have no truck with pomposity or preciousness." She drove her small jeep on the private roads of her estate until a few days before her death.

In the summer of 2000, she went over to the Castle of Mey for tea with her centenarian neighbour and cousin, the Queen Mother, who said after the visit: "She's very gruff. I've known her since she was a little girl. She was gruff then and she's gruff now."

Lady Anne was wealthy, ranking 511th on the Sunday Times Rich List in 2008. Much of this wealth was in land; one source calls her "the largest private landowner in Nottinghamshire". At the time of her death, she was said to own 17,000 acres (69 km2) of land in Nottinghamshire and 62,000 acres (250 km2) in Scotland.